Intentionally Curious

79. Taking Action in Your Life

September 03, 2022 Jason Ramsden Episode 79
Intentionally Curious
79. Taking Action in Your Life
Show Notes Transcript

A thoroughbred is powerful, strong, with focused motion that generates momentum and pushes them forward. A rocking horse has focused motion but never goes anywhere.

Do you do a lot of things and find yourself always in motion but never get anywhere like the rocking horse? Or do you have a focus -- a goal -- toward which you have laser focus so that the action you take is specific, strong, and powerful?

There is a big difference between taking passive action in your life and taking massive action in your life.

In this episode I share twelve ways you can starting taking action in your life right now.

Get after it my friends and we’ll see you next week!

For links to everything mentioned in this episode and more visit:

https://www.jasonramsden.com/episode79

Hey, Hey, Hey my curious friends. Welcome to episode 79 today. We'll be talking about taking action in your life. Before I get to that, though, if you're a regular listener, a fan of this show, please do me a favor and go ahead and click that five star rating on iTunes and write a review. Intentionally curious, only grows when awesome listeners like you take the time to rate and review us. And I'd appreciate it greatly. I also wanna remind you that you can share comments. Any episode by visiting jasonramsden.com/episode. And then the number of the episode you're commenting on it's super easy. And I personally respond to all comments made on the site because I believe that's how we grow together as a community. So let's go ahead and do that head over there now. All right, let's go with the concept of taking action in your life to start. I want you to imagine two different types of horses. The first is a thoroughbred, you know, the kind of the kind of horses that run in the Kentucky Derby, right? They're powerful, they're strong. And their effort in a race is all it's just focused, right? It's focused motion where their momentum pushes them forward. It's actually a thing of beauty. Like I love horses. I love to watch them run. Another type of horse can also be a thing of beauty though. But it's a decorated for kids bedrooms, right? This horse is a rocking horse and they kind of have focused motion too, but regardless of how fast they run, they don't ever go. All right. So these examples are how you should think about taking action in your life. Do you do a lot of things and find yourself always in motion, but really never getting anywhere kind of like the rocking horse, or do you have a focus? Do you have a goal? Do you have a place where you want to be like, are you trained to work towards that goal? So that the action you take is specific, the action you take is strong and so that you are powerful in kind of getting you where you want to. Think about that, do you all right. So there are two types of actions you take in your life. The first is passive action, which is the action kind of like the rocking horse, right? The rocking horse takes passive action. And then there's massive action, which is the action. The thoroughbred horse takes. So passive action is you doing lots of things every day in which you think. Those things will bring you results. You're super busy. You cross things off your list. You tackle chores, you go after your responsibilities, et cetera, et cetera, but none of your passive actions bring you any closer to your goals. So not even the tasks that you cross off your list, bring you closer to your goals because I I'll probably guarantee this because I used to be like this myself, the things you're crossing off the list are just low hanging fruit and they have little impact to help you move forward. Now on the other hand, massive action is about taking action that moves you forward. Kind of like that thoroughbred horse, right? Massive action is focused on the hard tasks, the things that create momentum and then propel you forward in your life. Now, if you listen to episode 78, the one just before this investing in yourself.. one of the things I asked you to do was go ahead and create a bucket list for yourself. And you can do that. Now. You can do that here now, right? If you wanna do that, go ahead and press pause and create a bucket list. If you didn't do that, if you didn't listen to that episode, right. Go ahead and do that. Create the bucket list and then ask yourself this question. How am I going to turn those dreams into reality? And the answer should be taking massive action in my life. Listen, I I've been there. Right. I've been exactly where you are trying to figure out the difference between passive action and massive action, because it, it will mean the difference between you creating the life of your dreams and not creating the life of your dreams. If you're not taking massive action in your life, if you don't have a bucket list, if you don't know what your dreams are, right. And dreams are really just goals that have a timeline attached to them. Like if you don't know what those are, you'll just always take passive action in your daily life. You won't take massive action to get you where you need to be.. Let me ask you this. Do you get stuck in taking action? Do you get stuck in knowing exactly what to. Do you ever, do you ever overanalyze right. And procrastinate and get down on yourself because taking action seems hard. I'm pretty sure you do, right? Because humans, we, we wanna keep things simple. We wanna keep things comfortable. We don't wanna challenge ourselves to get better where we are in life feels comfortable. So it feels good. Like we don't want things to change and we think, well, life is good enough. You ever think that life is good? I want, challenge you today. I want you to challenge yourself today more importantly, right? Challenge yourself, to believe that you can accomplish anything on your bucket list that you created, and it starts with just taking action. That matters. That's what massive action is it it's action. That actually matters. So I've done a lot of reading recently. I've done it for you and there are 12 habits I learned. That I'm also working on implementing myself and I want you to consider them to do them as well. Right. I want you to consider doing these habits. All right. So number one, start your day off by tackling the most important thing. Now, not the most urgent thing or the most pressing thing from someone else, but the most important thing to. The action you take on the most important thing should be something that pushes you towards the goals you set for yourself should, should propel you forward. Kind of like that thorough bread horse. The other benefit is that when you tackle the most important task, first, each day, it comes off your plate, right? It eases your mind. It makes you feel good. It feeds those endorphins and it kind of gives you this sense of accomplishment. And when you focus on the most important items, And get them done rather than kind of procrastinating and pushing them off to the side and doing the low hanging fruit, right? Those important items, don't have a chance to become those wicked nasty, urgent items. You find yourself running out of time to do and to get done. So, you know, there's a thing called eat the frog, right? Do that first, get it outta the way. Knock it out. First thing in the. All right. Number two, take responsibility for your actions and take responsibility for the results in your life. If you're not happy with how your life is right now or what you do on a daily basis, right. Spend, some time thinking about that. Right. Do you, do you spend any time blaming other people in your life? Do you, for example, oversleep get caught in traffic or don't complete that assign. Or always saying, you know, what's something outside myself that makes my life difficult. Right? If you take that viewpoint, that's not really why. Right? It's not really why. No, it's the lack of action you're taking that creates the, quote unquote outside forces in your life. In a nutshell, if you take action that you believe serves you well in that moment, Then you will be able to more easily take responsibility for your actions and taking personal responsibility for your actions and taking personal responsibility for where you are right now is so key to helping you create massive action. All right. Number three. Procrastination gets the best of you, doesn't it? Yeah, I get it. I get it. And if you feel like procrastination is creeping in, or you don't feel like doing so. Break that task down into more easily manageable or digestible chunks. Right? Break it down. Now this comes in super handy on those days when you're kind of feeling emotionally drained or overwhelmed and that happens, it happens. I get it. And it's okay. Right? Not every day is a great day emotionally or physically like your health and your wellness. They go up and down. Right. I understand that a hundred percent. So if you're seeing something that's like really big task, just break it down, do part. The key here is not to let how you're feeling in a moment, turn, , into an entire day, right? You don't want to, if you're feeling down or if you're feeling emotionally drained, you don't want the whole day to become a woe is me day. And the reason is your dreams are waiting for you. That bucket list is waiting for you. So to get over the hump on those days, on those days where you're not feeling energized, just try going for a quick walk, if there's bad weather outside, put on a song that kind of gets you pumped up and dance for two or three. Right dance. Like, no, no one's watching and it's okay. If you don't like to dance, then belt out your favorite song. Like you were on stage. The point here, my friends is to get your body moving. So the blood flows and brings oxygen oxygen to your brain. Okay. So putting yourself literally in motion can put your brain in motion. Number four, do not get into the beat yourself up shame cycle. It happens and it's okay when it happens, but don't do it constantly, right? This happens when you don't take massive action and you procrastinate. That's where shame comes from. So you start to get down on yourself and then the next thing you know, your self esteem is in the toilet, right? It's right in the crapper. And you're, you're thinking about anything and everything that might make you feel better. And the motivational triangle kicks in where you kind of self indulge in things that make you feel better and comfortable. Right? That happens. I know, I know it sounds hard, but your mind is such a powerful tool, such a powerful tool. And when you feed it negative thoughts, it'll be like that thoroughbred it'll run with them. It'll take you where you want to go in a negative way, But if you feed it positive thoughts, just like that thorough bread, right? When you train it. Well, it's gonna give you positive energy and positive results. Negative thoughts are gonna give you negative energy and negative results. So make sure, make sure that you get the positive energy going. And sometimes all it takes is just a little bit of courage. Like you could do it, you could do it. Number five. Remind yourself, why you're gonna take massive action in the first place, remind yourself why it's important to help reach your goals. So write those goals down, make them a visible reminder of what you're doing. And this could be your four year one goal, like your four one year goals. Right? So that was back in episode 78. So if you missed it, go back and get it. It could be your three priorities in your life. It could be the habit that you're creating the relationship with yourself. You wanna have, or it could just be, you know, whatever brings you joy and point you in the right direction, but write 'em down so that you see them have a visible reminder of why it's important to take massive action. Like what is the end result? What's that bucket list item you're headed towards whatever it may be. Number six accountability, accountability, accountability. That might sound a little preachy, but yes, if you don't have someone in your life that will hold you accountable, you know, someone that can check in on you and the actions you're taking, you have to find someone okay. If you wanna make forward progress, you have to have somebody that's gonna hold you accountable. Find a. Find find a colleague at work, find anyone in your life that can become your accountability partner. If you don't have an accountability partner, hire a coach, that person can be your accountability person for you. Having someone in your life that can hold you accountable gives you the edge. It gives you such an important edge so that you can continue taking action so that you can continue to keep moving forward towards your goals. Number seven. This is the one I just learned about and it, it has given me kind of a huge aha moment. So I hope it does the same for you. But first off, I'll just say eight hour days that's a forest, right? Eight hour days were developed when we needed people on factory lines to great things for the industrial revolution. There was no other way to kind of get things done at that. Right. So eight hour days are they come from the factory era, right. And I'm gonna go out a limb here and say, well, okay, you're not working in a factory. And there are some places where you do have to have an eight hour day. There are some, some jobs like schools, right. Where you have to be in place to do your work. Right. And of course, if you're a factory worker, I like no disrespect. You're an important part to the economy. So, you know, why eight hours? Like why eight hours? What does that. Any sense at all, but here's what I want you to do. So number seven is you have to find time to be able to switch between focus, work, and focus, relaxed rest. So I, I spent some time recently kind of resetting my entire daily schedule so that I could maximize when I work best and when I need to rest and reset. And I'll tell you, it has been a total game changer. Now, there are lots of articles out there on this type of type of work. So go ahead. I encourage you do your own learning, but a minimum, this tip, right? Getting your day straight. This tip is a lot like exercise. People get the most bang out of the work workout. If they do shorter, more intense workouts and the same holds. When you're focused on your work. So set a timer, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 50 minutes. When the timer goes off, take a break, distract yourself, take a walk, step away from it. Step away from other people, do something that relaxes you then play with the times and see what works best for. Try different times of the day. When do you find yourself to be most productive? Go with it and use it, leverage, but also make sure you make build in time for self care too. All right. Number eight, stay away from the what ifs and focus on the, how to. So when you get stuck in that, what if cycle you kind of spiral into negative thoughts, right? We end up overanalyzing, you end up overthinking and then ultimately that creates procrastination. Here's a good tip if you need to shout out a word that will help you. Get out of that cycle, like, it'll stop it, shout it out loud. Or if you're around other people, go ahead and shout it in your mind. That's okay. But what it does is it tells your brain something positive, like tell your brain something positive, shout it out. Tell you, tell your brain the reason why taking this action now is of benefit to you in your dreams. And then get back to taking action. Don't get lost in the what ifs. Focus on the howtos. All right. Number. Forget about worrying about others, please, whatever you do, people are not paying that close attention to you. Seriously. Only you are paying that close attention to you, right? So just let that one thought go and do not let, what other people think about you hold you back. And here's why, right. We, we think everyone is looking at us, but that's not true. Everyone is looking out for themselves. Right. Every person on this planet has their own crap to deal with their own goals, to go after their own issues, to kind of correct. And that's the truth, right? They really don't care about what you are doing and they really aren't thinking about you at all. The most important person in your life is you. So keep the focus on yourself, keep the focus on your goals. Now I'm not saying you should become a selfish person, right? I'm not saying that at all. I'm not saying you shouldn't care about other people. Nope, not at all. Just don't get caught up in thinking that people are constantly wondering about what you're doing right now in this moment or why you're doing it. They're not, they're not all right. Number 10, get pumped, get enthusiastic about taking massive action. And then when you do that and you start to take massive action, there's gonna be small steps along the way. Make sure you celebrate all of the small wins along the. When you celebrate all those small wins, your enthusiasm builds and you can carry it forward. And you can also build enthusiasm by tapping into your accountability. Partner's work with you and you can tap into their support of your work. You can listen to podcast, you can read books, you can find quotes. All of those things can get you. Watch that movie, you love the thing that pumps you up. Listen to music that gets your heart pumping, whatever it takes to harness enthusiasm each day, anything that gives you kind of that enthusiastic vibe to get back out in the world, do it, and then share it with other people. Share. What makes you passionate about doing things, share with people. What makes you enthusiastic about taking massive action towards your goals? Share, share. All right. Number 11. Find the fun in your action, right? Or go ahead and add in fun to make the action. You're taking more enjoyable. So for me, I like to put on my favorite song and I put it on repeat and I like that. Be the catalyst for fun and or focus while I'm working. And you might try by turning your tasks into a game. So how quickly can you complete complete a task or maybe you find a different place to do your work, or you go outside, sit at a coffee shop in a park by the water. Like whatever it is you can think of to mix things up and infuse that fun into the work. As you're doing it, give it a try, like mix it up, change it up and last but not least number 12, celebrate all of your accomplishment. At the end of your work day, or before you go to bed each night, take a moment to celebrate what you accomplished and do it no matter how big or how small it is, celebrate it, celebrate it, celebrate it, share it with someone else, post it on Facebook, post it on another social site. Share it with a friend, text your accountability partner, no matter what you accomplished today, share it with someone else. Woohoo. You got a lot from this. And so it might be worth taking another lesson for sure. So that you can kind of let it all sink in. And I also encourage you to go to jasonramsden.com/episode79 and share your one aha moment from today. Or that one question that came up for you. I wanna hear from you. I want to hear what you're thinking so I can support you in your journey. And I look forward to seeing you. All right. My friends, that's a wrap on this week's episode and always remember, be willing, be curious and be intentional. And until next week, keep doing the work. You've got this.